News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on A Massive Battery that Can Store Solar and Wind Energy. Parent comment

Re:A Massive Battery that Can Store Solar and Wind Energy by PhantomGremlin on Monday October 08, 2018 @03:59AM (#18165151)
So those panels are basically useless for 3 or 4 months of the year, i.e. November, December, January, February.

Would there be much improvement if you could tweak the orientation to match the seasons? E.g. tilt them down toward the horizon during the winter?

It's certainly a huge complication to have motorized panels that move all the time to track the sun. But maybe it wouldn't be that much of a hassle to go out there and manually reorient them (just in 1 axis) a few times a year?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:A Massive Battery that Can Store Solar and Wind Energy by pjc50 on Monday October 08, 2018 @04:56AM (#18165517)
They're fixed to the roof, so making them movable would be a risk to their safety and wind resistance while being fairly difficult to access (and ladders are dangerous). For a fairly small benefit. It's not just the angle but the sunrise and sunset are a lot closer together.
[ Parent | on HN ]